Faulkner

Wow. Lots of comparisons to Fed beating Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001. Roger’s worst ever performance on BP conversion: And then there’s this: Some people are saying this indicates 2019 is his final year. Other are saying he needs the points because his ranking will drop to 6/7 due to not defending last year’s title (and he has nothing to defend from clay since he didn’t play it last year). Maria’s testy press conference after losing to Barty:

LMAO

Wow, the chair umpire could have been killed. Tiafoe beat Grigor! This is interesting, and you can add Thiem at the USO to this:

*Just* got on the board after nine games. Danielle is one cocky woman. This post-match interview has zero false modesty.

WOW. Danielle Collins just abused Kerber. 6-0, 6-2 in under an hour.

Wow. Rafa is steamrolling Berdych.

Collins up 4-0 on Kerber?!?! Now 5-0.

How long has he been working with Agassi? I’ve wondered if AA has the temperament to be a coach. Clearly it didn’t work with Novak, but sometimes personalities just don’t mesh.

There was a rally in the 3rd set in this Barty/Sharapova match that ranks among the best I’ve seen. Certainly some of the best movement I’ve seen from Maria. Barty nearly let Maria back into this set just now, but had some clutch serves to maintain a break lead. Frances up two sets to love on Grigor.

Even Nolefam were a bit confused as to why Novak got so derailed by the lights in the stadium (and then the heckler) when he was cruising to a straight sets victory. BG brought up the USO match against Sandgren last year, a good comparison. But sometimes he does need to take a scenic route in a match to stay motivated for whatever reason. I think about 2016 when he went AWOL in the match against Gilles Simon, made 100 UFE, won the match, and then won his sixth AO. He’ll need to tighten it up against Medvedev, who talked a bit of sh!t about Novak in his last press conference. If there’s anything that motivates a great champion, it’s sh!t talk from an up-and-coming opponent. Sad to see Venus go out like that to Halep. That section of the women’s draw is insane. Meanwhile, this made the rounds:

Great thread

Coric and especially Pouille have been under the radar.

So unlucky with injuries last year. I wonder what his offseason preparation was like. Brad Gilbert going in on Fognini’s fitness: “He didn’t put in the hard yards in the offseason. He put in the hard yards on the pasta.”

Medvedev looks great, but he’s had a pretty easy path. Goffin was gone for a while and lost first round to Berankis (!) in Doha. Someone who has played well relative to expectations is Herbert.

It’s always interesting to see veteran players who’ve somehow avoided playing each other over the years. But if Nishikori and PCB win their matches tonight, they’ll have their first meeting ever in the AO R16.

The top women have really stepped up in a way they haven’t in MANY years.

^Yep. Like I said, classic Verdasco. He did the same thing at the end of the season down match point to lose the Shenzhen title to Nishioka.

A double fault on match point (or on someone else’s MP) is just classic Verdasco. Cilic is certainly more of a threat to Rog than Verdasco, who has only taken one set off Fed in six matches and that was 10 years ago. Tiafoe has a sick body:

That was probably an especially bitter pill for Caroline to swallow, given the animosity between those two. Maria gets Ash Barty next, whom she beat in Rome last year.